It looked like Mission Impossible exactly one month ago, when the Edmonton Oilers were 8-13-2 and had lost six of their previous eight, but running the pre-Christmas table has them exactly where they want to be at the holiday break.

OK, if you’d asked them in October if getting to 17-17-2 would be considered a major victory they’d have rolled their eyes, but considering how close they came to letting this season get away from them for good, trust them when they tell you this is big.

“You never want to set .500 as a goal at Christmas,” said goalie Cam Talbot, one of the big keys to Edmonton’s revival. “But from where we were it’s a pretty good place to start after the break.

“We did a heck of a job climbing back to .500, battling back. We’re going to feel good about ourselves for the next few days and come back ready to play on the 27th.”

Wins over Minnesota, San Jose, St. Louis and Montreal has them back in the fight. They’re still underdogs, but they’re back in the fight and that’s good enough for them.

“I think we’ve been playing some really good hockey lately,” said Leon Draisaitl, who had three assists in the 4-1 win over Montreal. “We’re back to playing the way we were playing last year. We have all four lines going right now. It’s nice to take that into the break.”

Four games ago, it didn’t look at all like an Oilers team that had only won two in a row twice all season could possibly rattle off four in a row and get back to .500. But they’ve been getting stronger by the night and by the time the first period was half over Saturday you pretty much knew they had this one in the bank.

So what clicked? Why the stunning difference between mid November and now?

“I think everyone was looking for that answer,” said winger Ryan Strome, who says it just boils down to this being a good team that wasn’t going to stay down forever. “Honestly, we have a championship caliber team in here. We have quality people, great players. It was frustrating coming to the rink every day when we were losing.

“We needed to find whatever it was, that spark, and I think we found it. Our leaders have been leading, our depth guys have been playing strong and contributing. All through the lineup we’re getting solid contributions.”

Last night was a perfect example.

This could have been a trap game for the Oilers. With all of the distractions around this time of year, in their last game before the break, against a team they’ve owned the last few years, against a backup goalie … it would have been tempting to look past these 60 minutes and lose focus.

“It’s never that easy, the last game before a break,” said Draisaitl. “A lot of times the heads are already in the break. But I thought through 60 minutes we played really solid. Our heads were in the game, we made the right decisions and we deserved to win.”

There is still an uphill road ahead of them, though. The Oilers will have to win about two out of every three games down the stretch in order to make the playoffs.

That’s daunting, but certainly not as daunting as it looked four games ago.

“We have the group of guys in this room who have the belief that we can do it,” said Talbot. “We did it all year last year; we won at a two-out-of-three pace and I don’t see any reason why we can’t do it again this year with the way that we’ve been playing. There’s a lot of belief on this room.”

So will Christmas ruin everything? Will the time off, the food, the presents and domestication, soften the Oilers up and take them off their roll?

Talbot says no, for the simple reason that he doesn’t think they’re on a roll.

“I think this is just who we are,” he explained. “The team that we started as I don’t think is indicative of the way that this group can play. The last seven, eight or nine games is what we needed to get back to. This is our group now. I think that we found our balance, our confidence and our swagger. We’re going to be coming out of the break feeling pretty good.”

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